Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of infusion capacity within the NHS for blood cancer treatments.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of infusion capacity within the National Health Service for blood cancer treatments. However, it is a priority for the Government to support the NHS to diagnose and treat cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible. The Department is committing to this by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support increased capacity.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure haemato-oncology services have the capacity to plan and adopt new innovations in the treatment of blood cancer.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service, through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have blood cancer, labelled as haematological neoplasms. This data supports service provision and commissioning in the National Health Service, clinical audits, and public health and epidemiological research, all of which contributes to improved outcomes for cancer patients, including blood cancer patients.
The Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials, and ensuring that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to NHS patients, including those with blood cancer.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking steps to prioritise the use of cost and clinically effective cancer medicines that result in fewer patient visits to hospital.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether all new medicines, including cancer medicines, should be routinely funded by the National Health Service based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by the NICE, and cancer medicines are eligible for funding from the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of positive draft NICE guidance.
In determining whether a medicine represents a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources, the NICE takes into account the impact of new medicines on health outcomes and the health and care system, including where costs may be incurred and where savings may be realised.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the 10-Year Cancer Plan for England will ensure that blood cancer patients receive the most optimal treatment, regardless of where they live.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has been clear that there should be a national cancer plan, and we are now in discussions about what form it should take, including how we will ensure that cancer patients across England receive the most optimal treatment. We will develop and publish the 10-Year Health Plan before publishing a new national cancer plan, and will provide updates in due course.
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for all patients across England.
The Department is committing to this by improving waiting times for cancer treatment, starting by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support faster diagnosis and access to treatment. In addition, NHS England has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. From NHS England’s national evaluation, blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
The Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure that the United Kingdom leads the world in clinical trials, and ensuring that innovative, lifesaving treatments are accessible to NHS patients, including those with blood cancer.
In September 2024, NHS England announced a new targeted treatment, Quizartinib, to be prescribed to newly diagnosed patients with a specific type of leukaemia, boosting their chance of remission and long-term survival, made available through NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund, which fast-tracks new innovative cancer treatments into standard care. This followed a previous announcement in August 2024, announcing the new treatment, Zanubrutini, for those with marginal zone lymphoma, which could halt the progression of their cancer and provide an alternative to further rounds of chemotherapy.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether immunocompromised people eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine this winter, who have had an adverse reaction to Spikevax in the past, will be compensated if advised by local services to pay privately to access a Comirnaty vaccine.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Guidance from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) states that there are very few individuals who cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United Kingdom. Anyone concerned about possible reactions to a vaccine should in the first instance speak to the clinician responsible for their care for advice. Published UKHSA clinical guidance for health professionals and immunisation practitioners on COVID-19 vaccination includes guidance for the management of patients with a history of allergy, including circumstances where a person may be referred to an expert allergist and, after a review of the individual’s risks and benefits of vaccination, and where it is indicated, they could then be vaccinated in hospital under clinical supervision. NHS England will continue to follow this clinical guidance and offer the appropriate vaccination to those who are eligible, including those who are immunocompromised, under expert supervision in a hospital setting, where appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether all integrated care boards in England have been supplied with stock of both the Spikevax and the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines this winter.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) manages the central storage and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for the United Kingdom’s programme. For the autumn and winter programme, the UKHSA has supplied both the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (Spikevax) and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) to the National Health Service.
NHS England works closely with the regional and integrated care board (ICB) teams to ensure they deliver the right vaccine to the right place at the right time. Every ICB has received both vaccines as part of the autumn and winter campaign.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the level of unmet need of immunocompromised patients for protection against COVID-19, and (2) whether the MHRA has sufficient staff so that it can appropriately prioritise regulatory decisions in support of such patients.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
As set out in the Living with COVID-19 Strategy, the Government and the UK Health Security Agency will continue to communicate to people most vulnerable to COVID-19 about available clinical interventions, including vaccination and treatments, as well as testing and public health advice.
All individuals aged six months old or above who are immunosuppressed were offered a vaccination in the Autumn 2023 COVID-19 vaccination programme, along with those in other clinical risk groups. The immunosuppressed group will be offered a further dose as part of the spring programme announced in February, that is being rolled out in England from mid-April. This follows the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice that those who are immunosuppressed are at particular risk of serious disease from COVID-19.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is looking at novel and standard ways to develop staff capability and expertise. New assessor capacity is being supplemented with an additional fixed-term resource of appropriately experienced and qualified specialists, to support the training and supervision of new staff. The MHRA also continues to recruit to additional roles in its assessment teams.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the COVID-19 monoclonal antibody Evusheld 2.0 is being treated as a priority for assessment; and whether they have any plans to rollout a programme to be fast-tracked to vulnerable patients.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
AZD-3152, which has been referred to as Evusheld 2.0, will be evaluated through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) standard appraisal process. The NICE is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based guidance on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits.
The NICE has formally started its appraisal of AZD-3152, ahead of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) decision on whether it should be given a United Kingdom marketing authorisation, and expects to invite stakeholder submissions in April 2024. Timelines for both the NICE’s guidance and licensing depend on data from the SUPERNOVA trial being available. AstraZeneca intends to submit clinical data to the NICE and the MHRA at the same time, with the aim that both organisations are able to reach decisions as close together as possible.
If AZD-3152 is recommended as clinically and cost effective by the NICE, the NHS in England will be under a statutory requirement to fund AZD-3152 for eligible patients, in line with the NICE’s recommendations. There are no plans for the NHS to routinely fund the medicine ahead of it achieving a licence or a positive technology appraisal recommendation from the NICE.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact to the NHS of the 16.9 per cent uptake rate, as at 29 October, for the autumn COVID-19 booster vaccine by immunocompromised patients; and what steps they will take to increase uptake among that cohort before the vaccination programme is due to end on 15 December.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
Data published by NHS England reported the number of immunosuppressed individuals aged between five and 64 years old that had received vaccination by 29 October 2023 as 326,143. It is not understood where the 16.9% uptake rate within the question has been derived. The published data shows a total number of individuals who have received autumn vaccination broken down by four cohorts.
We continue to work with NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to improve immunosuppressed uptake nationally, by understanding drivers of hesitancy, improving the quality of our published data, ensuring it is easy and convenient to book and access vaccinations, and by continuing a variety of campaign activities throughout the winter including the Get Winter Strong campaign. This was launched on 1 November 2023 and encourages those eligible, specifically the clinically most vulnerable, who have not yet come forward for the flu and COVID-19 vaccines to do so.
NHS England has produced and shared a range of targeted communications materials encouraging people who are immunosuppressed to take up their offer of a COVID-19 booster vaccine, including posters, display screen visuals and social media cards. There are also materials to raise awareness that immunosuppressed household contacts are also eligible for vaccination. These assets have been translated into 28 languages to reach people from a wide range of communities through their native languages and have helped general practices, vaccination centres, pharmacies and other sites to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccination this autumn and winter.
The Government’s Chief Medical Officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, also wrote to the main charities representing the clinically most vulnerable patient cohorts, to publicise this Autumn’s campaign, and to enable them to signpost the offer to their patient communities.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that eligible patients will have access to Paxlovid this winter.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department procured stock of Paxlovid during the pandemic and has set up a distribution network to both primary and secondary care in England so that all eligible patients can access the treatment in line with recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
NICE is in the process of developing recommendations for the National Health Service on the potential expanded use of Paxlovid. NICE published final draft guidance that recommends expanded use of Paxlovid in August 2023. Following discussions between the Department, NHS England and NICE, NICE has recently consulted on an NHS England proposal to vary the funding requirement that normally applies three months after the publication of NICE guidance to allow a phased rollout to all eligible patients, considering the capacity of the NHS to implement NICE’s recommendations in full.